If you have a bottle of mentsuyu (concentrated noodle soup base) or you've made my Japanese essence, you can use this also, diluted with hot water at a 5:1 or so ratio. In the meantime, make a simple sauce of 4 parts dashi stock to 1 part plain soy sauce, and keep warm. Put a cup of water or some other small weight on top of of the covering cutting board and leave to drain for about 30 minutes.
To do this, wrap the tofu piece in a cloth or in a couple of layers of paper towel, place on a cutting board, and place another cutting board on top. The key to deep frying tofu is to press it a bit so that excess water is drained out of it. It's a very delicate dish, so be sure you are ready to serve this immediately. It's not the same as aburaage (thin deep-fried tofu) or atsuage (thick deep-fried tofu), since agedashi is coated with flour and meant to be eaten right away. Think of what you might like to put on top and go for it!Īgedashi-dofu is deep fried tofu with a simple dashi-stock based sauce. In the summer, some finely julienned shiso leaves make a nice addition too, as are toasted sesame seeds, red chili powder, and so on. At least half of my square of home made tofu gets eaten as hiyayakko every time. In the summer months I could eat this every day. Don't add too much soy sauce or it will mask the delicate flavor of the tofu. You can add any number of garnishes, but my favorite is simply finely chopped green onion, grated fresh ginger, and bonito flakes, with a little sprinkle of soy sauce. Hiyayakko is plain chilled tofu with a little garnish on top. Simply place the tofu in a fine-meshed sieve over a sink to drain off the excess water.What's the best way to eat really fresh tofu? My favorite every time is hiyayakko (cold tofu), but agedashi-dofu (deep fried tofu with dashi sauce) is a close second. So, for all dishes using fresh tofu, draining is required.
You can buy packs of dried powdered kombudashi from Asian stores or online I always have packets at home if I don't have time to make dashi.įresh tofu is normally sold in a tray of water that keeps it moist and fresh, but usually you do not want all that extra liquid in the finished dish. There are a few ways to make dashi, but the most common uses kombu, a Japanese kelp. There is also the advantage of not having added salt, which is in most instant vegetable stocks, so you can better control the seasoning of your dish. It is a great swap in Asian food for classic vegetable stock for many reasons, but mostly because vegetable stock is based on a French mirepoix of ingredients, including quite distinctive flavours such as garlic and celery, which in some more subtle dishes - including miso soup - are too intrusive. Vegetarian Japanese stock is great to have on hand for enhancing many of the dishes in this book. Scatter with scallions and grated daikon to serve.Next, slice the tofu into 4 x 100g/3½ oz blocks and coat the pieces in the cornstarch.Scatter with spring onions and grated daikon to serve.Divide the sauce between the bowls, pouring it around the tofu, not on top of it.Fry the remaining 2 pieces in the same way before serving up into bowls. Fry for 3–4 minutes until lightly golden brown, then lift out onto kitchen paper (paper towels) to drain off the excess oil. If they don’t, the oil is not hot enough. Drop 2 of the tofu blocks into the oil they should sizzle immediately.As always when deep-frying, be very careful and do not leave the kitchen or take a telephone call. Fill a large saucepan or wok with enough oil to sit at least 2cm/¾ inch deep and heat it up for 3–4 minutes.Next, slice the tofu into 4 x 100g/3½ oz blocks and coat the pieces in the cornflour.Prepare the sauce by mixing the dashi, soy sauce and mirin together in a bowl.The dashi can be kept in the refrigerator, covered, or in a closed bottle, for 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.My friend Tim Anderson, of Nanban Japanese restaurant in London, recommends toasting kombu over an open flame for a deeper flavour before soaking it.
It is really important that you don't boil the kombu, or it loses its delicate flavours. Simmer over a medium-low heat until just before boiling, then remove the kombu. Pour the mixture into a saucepan, if it is not already in one, and remove the mushrooms.Cover with clingfilm (plastic wrap) or a lid and leave for at least 2 hours or overnight. Pour the measured filtered water into a large bowl or saucepan and add the kombu and shiitake mushrooms.Once you have weighed the amount of kombu that you need, I recommend that you make some extra cuts into the pieces with scissors to increase the surface area and help the flavour to release into the water. Kombu comes in large sheets that require cutting down to size.